Rockefeller vs. ExxonMobile: the New "Dallas"

Remember "Dallas" the 1970s TV show where the oil-rich heirs launch intrigues and turn on each other? Stayed tuned tomorrow (May 28) because the next episode will be a doozy.

Tomorrow, what's turned out to be a highly active proxy season comes to a head in Dallas. There, the management of ExxonMobil, the nation's most profitable and successful petroleum company will face off against a slew of shareholder activists including 15 members of the family of John D. Rockefeller, the symbol of American capitalism and founder of the oil giant.

The Rockefellers have offered a resolution asking that the role of chairman and CEO be split apart so the company can start looking being greenhouse gas-emitting hydrocarbons as its products. In a separate resolution, filed along with the Sisters of St. Dominic, the Rockefeller heirs want the $358 billion company with $40 billion in profits last year to start reporting on how it will cut greenhouse gas emissions. About 19 big institutional investors, including retirement systems in California and New York, back the resolutions.

Countering them, another large group of shareholders, the National Fraternal Order of Police, has filed its own resolution urging the company the old the line against "social" goals" that would "undercut every project and business operation" and hurt profitability at the world's best performing energy company.

Holy conundrum! All of these are worthy goals. Should ExxonMobil turn its back on the product that made it rich and undertake a massive realignment to cut carbon dioxide emissions? In a time of record high oil prices and dangerous production and supply shortages, wouldn't it be better to serve society and its shareholders if it found more oilfields and built more refineries, pipelines and storage tanks? CEO, Rex Tillerson, will be earning some of his $21 million in pay when he deals with these issues.

The Rockefeller family is correct that the company has a fiduciary responsibility to peer far in the future for newer, renewable and less polluting products. But we live in today as we will tomorrow. Today, as the policemen point out, there's a real need for more gasoline immediately to break the upward spiral on prices and give the economy a breather. Conservation and switches to non-polluting sources of energy can't be done overnight.

There is a bigger phenomenon here than just what ExxonMobil should do. We are seeing a new form of shareholder activism that, like global warming, is just now hitting the mainstream and is starting to be taken seriously. According to CERES, a network of 60 institutional investors that promotes sound environmental-oriented investment and oversees $5 trillion in assets, a record number of shareholder resolutions involving greenhouse gas issues have been presented to corporations this proxy season. That's up from 47 last year.

Here's the trend: more acceptance of greenhouse gas issues, more demands on CEOs, directors and corporations, more shareholder activism. CEOs and boards are now listening more intently. Just a few years ago, management would be in denial that global warming exists at all.

So, tomorrow, be sure to tune in to "Dallas." Let me know who shot J.R. and also if Rex Tillerson survives.